Justin Scott is one of the prominent authors from America, who is well known for writing his books based on the thriller, naval fiction, and mystery genres. He is particularly well known for writing the Ben Abbot novel series. Author Scott has also collaborated with author Clive Cussler for creating the Isaac Bell book series. Under the pen name of Paul Garrison, he has written the Robert Ludlum novels. The parents of author Scott were also famous authors. His father, Leslie Scott, has written around 250 books, while his mother, Lily Scott used to write stories and novels about romance. Author Scott’s birth took place in Manhattan, New York City. However, he spent most of his time growing up in the Great South Bay in Long Island. Scott has a sister named Alison Skelton, who is also an author by profession. In addition to using his original name for writing his stories and books, he also makes use of several pseudonyms such as J.S. Blazer, Alexander Cole, and Paul Garrison. Scott has written and published a total of 14 books in his name, and seven and two books under the names of Paul Garrison and Blazer respectively. With Clive Cussler, he has developed 10 books in total, most of which form the Isaac Bell series. Before going on to begin his writing career, author Scott obtained his Bachelor’s as well as Master’s degrees in the field of American history. Following that, he was involved in driving trucks and boats. Scott has even worked in Hell’s Kitchen as one of the bartenders. The first attempt made by him in the world of writing was when he took to edit a journal of the engineering field. Finally, author Scott began his writing career in the year 1973 with the release of his debut book titled Many Happy Returns. Subsequently, he wrote his first book as Paul Garrison in the year 1998. It was known as Fire & Ice.

Scott has received nominations for the Allan Poe Prize on two occasions by the MWA. Being one of the well established authors of the genre, he received the opportunity to become a member of many writer’s associations such as The Players, Authors Guild, and the Adam’s Round Table. Prior to entering into the field of writing, author Scott used to work in a variety of odd jobs, including driving, bartending, building beach houses, and editing. He says that he loves traveling a lot. Most of his travels were intended basically for doing research works for his stories and characters. However, along with researching, he used to enjoy visiting various places of historical importance places as well. When author Scott created the thriller series about a character from Robert Ludlum, he was warmly greeted by the critics and reviewers. Publishers Weekly said that Robert would have been very proud to see the fine thriller developed by author Scott on one of his characters. This thriller series continues from where Robert had left his original series. The magazine even stated that the character of Janson is described by Scott in a more complicated manner. Due to this, he seems to be even more interesting than most of the other action heroes. The thriller series is filled with a lot of twists and turns that are capable enough to leave the Ludlum fans wanting for more. The Kirkus Reviews also praised Scott for depicting excellent knife work, helicopters, sniper shots, private jets, corporate machinations, RPGs, betrayals, etc. This helped to increase the popularity of author Scott even further.

The Ben Abbott series written by Justin Scott is comprised of 5 books in total, which were released between the years 1994 and 2007. Each of the books depicts Ben Abbott as the primary protagonist. He is described as an ex-financier from Wall Street, who has now turned into a realtor and lives in Newbury, Connecticut. One of the initial books released in the series is entitled ‘Frostline’. It was originally published in 2003. The start of the book shows Ben Abbott as being summoned by the newest resident of Newbury, Harry King. Ben hopes to get a good business as Harry is famous as an ex-diplomat and a close friend of Kissinger. He is even famous for his involvement in Vietnam War. Ben hopes that he will get by selling Harry’s estate will be huge. However, King tells him that he wants him to act only as a mediator in the deal between his trouble-causing neighbor, Ronnie Butler, and him. The two seem to have a dispute over a small strip of land and both Harry and Butler claim to own it. But, before Ben Abbott help to sort out the matter a heavy explosion occurs at Harry’s party on his estate. Due to the blast, a nearby dam gets blown up resulting in injuring Butler’s son named Dickie. Being a former army man, Butler gets arrested with the charges of causing the explosion. Dickie does not think that his father is responsible for the dynamite explosion. In the middle of this controversy, Ben has his patience tested. He is forced to take an unusual course with respect to his loyalties to his family, lovers, and friends. In the end, the novel turns out to be an interesting thriller.

One of the other exciting books published in this series is called ‘McMansion’. The beginning of this novel shows that all of the Newbury town sees the enormous carpeting by McMansions. Even Ben Abbot becomes incensed and decides not to sell any of them. Soon, many other citizens get provoked by the ugly and over-sized mansions. Many realtors begin to fall for them. But, things take a shocking turn when one of the greedy developers named Billy Tiller is found dead under his own bulldozer. An eco-activist named Jeff Kimball gets arrested as he was the one controlling the bulldozer. However, he claims that he is innocent. The state attorney tries to close this case as soon as possible by prosecuting Jeff so as to help him get into U.S. Senate. Jeff’s father hires a small town criminal lawyer named Ira Levy to fight his son’s case. Ira, who has Ben under a debt, asks him to help her prove Jeff’s innocence and clear off his debt. After learning about the case, Ben Abbot begins to believe that Jeff Kimball is innocent, but he wonders how to prove it. He starts investigating by looking into the private life of Billy Tiller and comes up with importance evidences to get Jeff acquitted of all charges.

Master of the standalone thriller genre, Shari Lapena, is back. Author of The Couple Next Door and A Stranger in the House, An Unwanted Guest is the latest novel by Shari. It takes place in a cozy mountain lodge in Winter where various people are staying for a romantic getaway. A blizzard cuts off the power and any contact with the outside world so everyone settles in for the long haul. Then a guest dies. And another. Knowing Shari's other books, this should be one we'll be reading late into the night. For more details or to pre-order, visit our Shari Lapena page.

Recommendations

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Featured Series

Our book series of the month is the Will Robie Series by David Baldacci. If you like Mitch Rapp, Jack Reacher, Jason Bourne etc then you'll love the Will Robie series. These are page turners to the max too and Baldacci knows how to keep you going all night long!

Featured Author

Bill Wenham is the author of various book series including The Inspector Charrington Mysteries and the Inspector Bruce Mysteries. He just started writing in his 80s to follow a life long dream. It’s an amazing story and the books he has written are pretty great too – his passion really shines through. Read more about Bills books.

Did You Know…

In the "Never Give Up" category, famous author John Grisham's first novel, A Time To Kill, was rejected by almost 30 different publishers.